Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Kofi did it.

I don’t usually cry when I watch professional wrestling: it’s the not the sort of entertainment that would elicit tears. But last night’s Wrestlemania 35 was quite different.

When Kofi Kingston pinned Daniel Bryan 1-2-3 for the WWE Championship, I was in tears for a solid 10 minutes, and still getting choked-up thinking about it now.

Pro-wrestling may be “fake” and “scripted”, but those emotions were as real as can be. Kofi’s climatic win was everything I love about wrestling: a dramatic underdog story of perseverance, mixed in with a solid dose of athleticism and high-flying acrobatics. It’s why I kept watching WWE since childhood and well into adulthood, even though I know results are predetermined; because who doesn’t get moved by a good underdog story?

And the Kofi storyline was fabulously executed: from the chance opportunity in replacing Mustafa Ali at a match nearly two months ago, to building up the ultimate underdog tale of the corporate deck stacked against him for 11 years, and then finally winning the gold at Wrestlemania. Us fans were rabidly behind Kofi since the match as Ali’s substitute, and credit to the WWE creative team for latching onto the momentum and giving us the catharsis.

The match itself was really well done, too. There was weight and consequence to every move, and the finish cannot be more perfect. We were at the edge of our seats the entire time, wondering if at any moment the dream can be snatched away from Kofi. It was beautiful.

It’s funny; I’ve had discussion with my friends over the years about how Kofi is just a world title win away from being a grand slam champion (having had held all the major belts in the WWE), but would the company ever give him such a push? For the past five years Kofi’s been flourishing as a member of the New Day stable, and it seemed inconceivable that he’d be singled out for a world title run (we’d always thought it’d be Big E who’d get the push when the time comes).

Which makes what happened last night so intensely more special for me. In a way I can’t believe it actually happened, and it could not have gone to a more deserving person. An indelible Wrestlemania moment for sure.

Life is a beach and then you perish to the sea.

Rich car guys discussing depreciation

Every day I frequent car forums because it’s a great place to chat with like-minded people and also to learn about cars. Model-specific forums are a fantastic resource to find out about the ins and out of a particular car; they’re extremely helpful for research before purchase, and to share in the ownership experience afterwards - truly a hive mind of knowledge. I’ve done this with every car I’ve own thus far, and presently with the 911 GT3 I’m a registered member of Rennlist.

There’s a strange phenomenon on Rennlist that I haven’t seen before in the dedicated forums of my previous cars: the constant talk and worry about a car’s value. I simply can’t believe the amount of chat regarding depreciation and how best to use a car to get the maximum resale value (don’t put miles on it, obviously). Honestly, what are all these rich car guys worrying about?

And those people are rich, because Rennlist is a Porsche forum, and transactions for Porsche cars can easily reach into the six figure sums. One would think that if you’re wealthy enough to pay 3 to 4 times the costs of an average new vehicle, you aren’t likely to fret over losing money on depreciation like the rest of us plebeians. So what if a 911 loses value like a Maserati luxury sedan (it doesn’t, but that’s beside the point)? Most of those guys can afford to buy the same car many times over!

The depreciation talk is especially acute in the 911 GT car section - covering all 911 models with a ‘GT’ moniker attached, where seemingly every other thread is someone asking about best practices in speccing a car to get the most on resale, or is a particular model a good buy given the market trends. These are special 911s with prices well into the six figures – why is depreciation such a concern? I have to question do these owners truly love cars and driving, or merely the symbolism that comes with owning a Porsche.

In my past experience, there were no such silly discussions in the Subaru or Mazda forums; people there buy cars to drive and enjoy - that’s it. No one cared that not opting for the sport package is going to negatively affect the resale down the road, or question is it okay to daily-drive a car because the value will go down.

I guess I’ll have to keep saying this: cars are meant to be driven.

Going back to eight hours

Thus far this year I’ve been “only” getting roughly seven hours of consistent sleep each night, which is lower than my optimum of the standard eight hours. I fell into the trap of wanting more hours out of the day to do stuff, and figured that robbing an hour out of precious sleep time – as opposed to, you know, maybe not surf twitter so much – would be the thing to accomplish this. Idiotic, I know.

Armed with seven hours sleep, I was still decently productive and mentally sharp, but I’d be lying if I said it’s exactly the same as getting the proper eight hours. Is the productivity trade-off worth it? That’s a resounding no as well: the extra hour I gained ends up almost exclusively used towards frivolous activities, like the aforementioned twitter surfing, or watching car films on YouTube.

Reading more pages on a book or writing more words on the blog? That’s hilarious.

Starting this week, I decided to not be so wasteful and reverted back to sleeping the standard eight hours. Like meeting an old friend again or finding something long lost, the increased energy and focus I’m getting from my slumber is nearly revelatory. I feel great, and far less annoyed when the alarm clock wakes me in the morning. I’ve rediscovered why I started sleeping the proper amount of hours many years ago in the first place: for health and vitality.

All of this may sound trivial, but when you detach and see how important sleep is – a third of our entire lives, the move back to eight hours is quite significant in my opinion. As I creep further into my 30s, I need to be exceptionally guarded with the sleep schedule; at a decade removed from my college days, I simply can’t pull all-nighters with impunity and feel zero ill effects.

Sleep is nature way of healing our bodies and keeping us well, millennia before any forms of medicine. So please do get enough amounts of it, my friends.

Should I get a second car?

Wait a minute; how did I go from no car at all to now pondering the necessity of a second car? Funny how perspectives and situations can completely turn around in less than a year.

Back in May of last year I embarked on the ‘no car’ journey, having sold the MX-5 and then henceforth only used public transportation and the occasional ride-sharing to get myself to places. That experiment ended this January when I bought the GT3, though I’ve still been taking the bus to and from work. The 911 isn’t the greatest of cars to commute with for many reasons, some idiosyncratic, some innate.

One of the idiosyncratic reasons is the lack of secured parking at where I live. There’s absolutely no way I am street-parking the GT3, especially since my neighborhood is not of the high-income and or gated variety. So instead I park the car at work, where there’s a covered parking complex. It’s not the most ideal situation to have my beloved car be located on the other side of the city, but it’s the best option short of paying monthly for a parking spot or storage unit closer to home. The carpark at work is somewhat secured, and more importantly the GT3 is not exposed to the elements.

Obviously then in order for me to go out driving on the weekends, I basically have to first head to work – every single time. This in it of itself isn’t too bad because I quite enjoy riding the bus and listen to podcasts. The problem starts whenever I need to do more than taking the GT3 out for a spin, such as maintenance work or giving it a solid detailing. Any gear required for such servicing, I’d need to schlep it with me on the bus, which can vary from merely inconvenience to downright impossible depending on the size of the job.

What I need is a second vehicles for parts running.

It needn’t be fancy or remotely sporting: all I need is a simple car that’s easy to drive, while small and inexpensive enough to be conveniently parked in San Francisco without worry. The cheapest new car on the market - those tend to be subcompact in size - available for lease should suffice.

But that presents a conundrum: do I use the second car to commute as well, and forgo using public transportation? In terms of being a kind citizen to the environment it wouldn’t be a good decision, and in terms of costs it’ll be significantly higher than the $78 I’m paying for the monthly pass. Dealing with the grind of Bay Area traffic is also a huge negative against this move. However, the convenience factor is difficult to ignore: the many hours saved, and not having to carry a bucket of tools with me on the bus.

We shall see what happens.

Damn it, why can't I just drive?

I am indeed that person who implores people to drive their cars, that vehicles aren’t meant to be permanently stored in climate-controlled garages, that superficial blemishes give character to a car (those sweet patina points), and it’s okay for it to not be as perfect as the day it rolled out of the factory.

I am also the person who is supremely obsessive compulsive about keeping a car as perfect as possible, and the two diametrically opposed ethos create quite the friction point for me. There’s not a lot I love more than taking the GT3 out on a long drive: music on to accompany the melodic rumble of the engine, and with no particular destination in mind. But, as soon as a set of loose pebbles get pelted onto the windshield, creating fresh pockmarks, that’s when the agony begins.

So much for putting miles on cars and embracing the patina. Given the opportunity and resources I’d totally park a car forever in a my living room and polish it with the finest baby diapers and extra virgin tears.

Admittedly my car OCD was immensely worse back a few years; these days I’m much more accepting of flaws and scars from normal wear and tear (or self inflicted extracurricular wear and tear). I’d thought buying a used car would alleviate some of the compulsions, given the car is innately imperfect, and the first few cuts (if you will) have already been done. Contrast that to the brand new vehicles I’ve purchased, where it was an utter mental drain to pay attention to each and every weird sound, and thinking the worse of it. That pothole I ran over? The car is ruined!

Turns out I’m equally obsessive with a used car, and worse, I’m being OCD about blemishes that weren’t even my fault! Isn’t that just the most pathetic: I’m letting things done to the car by the previous owners bother me. He put a scratch on the steering wheel leather - that bastard!

Obviously I’ve been fighting myself to not be so caught up with the GT3’s imperfections, whether or not they were caused by me. As long as the car remains clean and mechanically sound, that is all I can and should ask for. The GT3 is a driver, not a museum art piece; though the process to be completely at peace with that notion is going to take some time. The work continues.

PSA: cars are meant to be driven

I don’t have much of a morning routine, other than laying on the bed for at least an hour (I work a late shift) while browsing on the phone. It begs the question: what did we do before the smartphone was invented? Go back to sleep, probably.

Amongst the places I visit during my hour of sleuthing is the daily Bring a Trailer newsletter. In it is a list of auctions that are set to expire that day, and another list that shows the latest cars put up on the block. I can easily lose many hours looking at each auction page, reading through the descriptions and comments. It’s especially fun when peculiar and interesting cars come up for sale, a great way to learn about models I wouldn’t otherwise have known existed.

Some of the cars up for auction can also be immensely frustrating. Case in point, from yesterday’s newsletter this particular gem of an Acura NSX started accepting bids:

An absolutely pristine 1994 model with only 187 miles on it. Supposedly a super-rich car collector bought it (and many, many other cars) new and stuck it in a climate-controlled warehouse forever. This particular NSX, for all intents and purposes, was never driven.

That is just the worse kind of sadness for a car enthusiast.

I noticeably groaned as soon as I opened the auction page; what a great shame such a legendary car didn’t get driven, and likely won’t ever be driven. Indeed, for those looking for the most sparkling sample of a first-generation NSX, this one is the ticket, but it’s going to be appropriately expensive due to the insanely low mileage count. The buyer of this car isn’t wont to put miles on it because the depreciation will be catastrophic. This NSX is worth so much because of the low miles, so each addition mile put on it will have exponential consequences to its value.

The auction winner will simply stuff the car in his own garage until another point in time in the future, where the car will be sold again for even more money. Car as an investment, nail on chalkboard to my ears.

Ideally, the person who buy this will not care about depreciation and simply drive it until it’s mechanically infeasible. That’s what cars are meant for, and the route I would go if I had the sufficient resources to bid on this NSX.

But then if I were looking to buy an NSX to drive, the smarter play would be to purchase a nice sample with 30K-40K miles: it’d cost significantly less money, and the car will be more mechanically sound. A 25-year old car that have sat since new – with zero service records – is going to require an enormous amount of maintenance done before its viable for the road. Think of all the perished rubber and gaskets that haven’t seen a heat-cycle in decades.

Obviously, how a man uses his cars or spend his money is none of my concern, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be disappointed in seeing cars not being use as its intended function.

A man and his castle

When I was in my twenties, I was completely into the urban city life. Having grown up in one, I love the density, the hustle and bustle, and how accessible everything is. Living in secluded suburbia was just about the dullest thing imaginable; there would only be the house, and nothing else. Give me the city, and the all of the lights.

Presently in my thirties, and properly “adulting”, my perspective on that has been changing. These days, peace and quiet is what I’m after, and ultimately a castle to call my own. I don’t want to hear the busy sidewalks and too many cars driving by; I don’t want to fight with the crowds and wade the troubles parking; I don’t want to pay the high tax for living in one of the most expensive cities on the planet.

I want open spaces, and dead silence.

I want the proverbial cottage at the countryside.

Too crazy of a dream? Perhaps. The immediate and biggest concern is what the heck am I to do for money. I refuse to be amongst the masses who live far away from the urban core, yet still commute for hours every day back into the city for work. That’s a significant amount of precious time to be squandered on the road, even in these modern times of endless podcasts and super intelligent cruise-control.

But those people do the commute slog for a reason: the city has almost all the jobs. It wouldn’t be so prosperous and constantly full of new developments otherwise. No doubt they’d all rather work much closer to home, but deep in the heart of suburbia or rural counties, there are no high paying jobs.

For me, the solution to that problem is the Internet, in the way of digital freelancing, or join a company that will allow work from home. With the cost of living ‘out in the sticks’ immensely less than metropolises, I wouldn’t even need to be earning as much as I do now for it to be sustainable. Besides, aside from cars (admittedly a big one), I’m not in the least materialistic about anything; I don’t need a huge salary to be absolutely content.

It’s definitely something to ponder about. I certainly cannot afford a house in or anywhere near San Francisco, so if I really want a place for myself – can’t live with the parents forever, no matter how Asian I am – I think I’ll have to get out from this city.